Thomas resigns over Israel remarks

Helen Thomas, a fixture in the White House press corps since John F. Kennedy was president, resigned Monday, just two months shy of her 90th birthday, after remarks she made last month saying that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to Poland and Germany sparked a wave of condemnation.

The announcement was made by Hearst Newspapers, for whom she had worked as a columnist since 2000 after spending 57 years at United Press International. Thomas was celebrated for breaking barriers to female journalists and became something of a cultural icon. On her 89th birthday President Barack Obama presented her with cupcakes in the White House press room.

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“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Thomas said in a statement. “They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

The decision to retire came as Thomas faced criticism from nearly every corner after video of her remarks during an interview with RabbiLive.com’s Rabbi David Nesenoff emerged online late last week. Monday morning, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs joined in the criticism.

“Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible,” Gibbs said during the daily briefing, adding that Thomas’s remarks “do not reflect certainly most of the people here and certainly not those of the administration.”

Thomas did not attend Monday’s briefing, and journalists, perhaps sensing the end of an era, were spotted taking pictures of Thomas’s empty front-row seat.

Over the weekend, Thomas’s speakers agency dropped her as a client and a suburban Washington high school that had asked Thomas to speak at its commencement rescinded the invitation. “Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness,” Alan Goodwin, principal of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md., wrote Sunday in an e-mail to students and parents.